While Rosy and Rob retired from exhibiting their own floral displays and gardens at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, they've been involved in the show ever since to some degree.
Last year, 2024, saw Rosy mentor a young designer, Emma Tipping, to create the UBS x RHS feature garden 'A day in the life of a nursery'. An immersive experience, the space showcased plants by The Caley Brothers Mushrooms, Kent Wildflower Seeds, Kitchen Garden Plant Centre and She Grows Veg. The feature offered an insight into innovative garden design, sustainable horticulture and making planting accessible for a wide range of growing spaces. Queen Camilla visited, as did the BBC Gardeners World team. To read more about that exhibit see: Photos of the UBS RHS A day on the nursery an insight into life as a grower, RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024 . Last year saw Rob mentor a number of new exhibitors, providing his logistics and insider Chelsea knowledge, helping new exhibitors navigate the show space and to better understand the Chelsea rules and regulations. Holly and Nicky of In the Garden UK, one of his mentees, achieved an RHS Gold Medal for their house plants.
This year, Rosy, who is an honorary Vice President of the RHS, has been supporting the Society in defining the criteria for the RHS Chelsea Plant of the Year. And Hardy's has been chosen by 3 garden designers to supply some if not all of their peat free herbaceous perennials for their gardens at at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The gardens have all been sponsored by Project Giving Back - the grant-making charity that supports gardens for good causes at RHS Chelsea.
Jo Thompson. Photo (c) Rachel Warne.
Jo Thompson Garden Design, an experienced Chelsea exhibitor, has designed a main avenue garden for the Glasshouse Project, which uses horticulture to give female prisoners a second chance while serving their sentences and upon release, preventing reoffending and promoting resettlement. Jo said "The Glasshouse Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show will be an immersive, hopeful and reflective space – a garden that embodies the transformative effect of The Glasshouse mission to help people grow and embrace a second chance."
Katy Terry of Good Grounding Garden Design, a new comer to Chelsea, has designed a garden for the ADHD Foundation, which is the UK's leading neurodiversity charity.
The garden will draw a deep parallel between the rich diversity of plant life and the unique strengths of neurodiverse individuals. It aims to encourage visitors to 'think differently about thinking differently' and help them understand how those with a neurodiverse condition, who think differently, perceive the world through a different lens and don't always behave as expected. Just as plants grow and adapt in unexpected ways, people with neurodivergent minds also thrive doing things differently."
Visual: The ADHD Foundation Garden. (c) Katy Terry
Nicola Oakey, of Nicola Oakey Design, is another debutee at RHS Chelsea. Nicola has designed a garden for Songbird Survival which works to save songbirds through science.
The Songbird Survival Garden "centres around the narrative of a bird's daily life. Designed with children in mind, it provides a playful, immersive space for people to connect with the fascinating lives of songbirds. The garden explores how three elements – shelter, water and food - are instrumental to birds' lives."
Visual: Songbird Survival Garden by Nicola Oakey (c) Nicola Oakey
Rosy, who is an Honorary Vice President of the Royal Horticultural Society, said "We're delighted to have been chosen as a grower to supply these gardens at this years RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The team will be working hard over the coming months to ensure our plants are of the standard required for the world's greatest flower show, giving these designers, their incredible charities a chance of winning that prestigious RHS Gold medal alongside the People's Choice Award. "
Source: Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants